Salmon, Sir Nowell, Admiral of the Fleet, 1835-1912.

The collection is comprised of diaries from Admiral of the Fleet Sir Nowell Salmon and his wife Lady Emily Augusta Salmon, and three diaries from his sister-in-law Sophia Mary Saunders. There are also letters written and received by various members of the family between 1857 and 1961. Some logs kept by Salmon as a midshipman, 1847-1854, and letterbooks kept as commander-in-chief of the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa station, 1882-1885, can be found under the reference NAI/3/1-10 in the Naish family papers.

Administrative / biographical background
Salmon was born in 1835, the son of the Reverend Henry Salmon, rector of Swarraton, Hampshire, and his wife Emily Charlotte Nowell, youngest daughter of Vice-Admiral William Nowell (died 1828). He was educated at Marlborough College and joined the Navy in 1847. As a midshipman he served on HMS THESIS on the South American station between 1851 and 1853. He was then appointed mate on HMS JAMES WATT and served in the Baltic campaign. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1856 and in that year joined HMS SHANNON under Captain William Peel. While serving with the Naval Brigade at Lucknow, he volunteered to climb a tree in order to reply to enemy fire coming from a fortified mosque. For this act of gallantry Salmon received the Victoria Cross and was promoted to the rank of commander. He was in command of the screw sloop HMS ICARUS on the Mediterranean and the West Indies stations between 1859 and 1864. His commands with the rank of captain from 1869 onwards were the armoured frigate HMS DEFENCE in the West Indies and the Mediterranean, the armoured frigate HMS VALIANT, guardship in southern Ireland, and the battleship HMS SWIFTSURE in the Mediterranean. As rear-admiral he was commander-in-chief of the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa station, with his flag in the corvette HMS BOADICEA, between 1882 and 1885. As vice-admiral he was commander-in-chief of the China station between 1888 and 1891. He was promoted to the rank of admiral in 1891. He then served as commander-in-chief of Portsmouth, between 1894 and 1897, with his responsibilities including the Diamond Jubilee Naval Review at Spithead. He was appointed first and principal naval aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria in 1897 and was promoted to the rank of admiral of the fleet in 1899. During his retirement from 1906 onwards he lived at Curdridge Grange, Botley, Hampshire. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1887 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1897. He married Emily Augusta Saunders, daughter of Erasmus Saunders and Sophia Mary Saunders née Harrison, at Upwey, Dorset, in 1866. Salmon died at Southsea in 1912.